Utah says smaller national monuments would safeguard antiquities

Utah on Thursday backed President Donald Trump’s plan to shrink two national wilderness areas in the state, arguing in court papers that litigation to keep them as intended by predecessor Barack Obama would threaten archeological sites.

Utah posited that federal and state antiquities laws and regulations cannot be adequately enforced under current conditions, and increases in the number of visitors to the Grand Staircase Escalante and Bears Ears national monument without more law enforcement is “irresponsible and inimical to the interests ostensibly driving the creation of national monuments.”

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